


Stuff of Legends

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 06:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12007215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Written for a prompt on tumblr. Scarecrow Joe falls in love with one of the scarecrows.





	Stuff of Legends

Stuff of Legends

For time immemorial, one of the Goldenleaf families had carried out the tradition of having a guardian of Scarecrow Hill. In ancient times, the role of this guardian had simply been to keep the witches away and to run the race. Once the golden apple had been retrieved in the race, the winner had the apple as a prize. Sometimes, a Soul Rider had won, and the apple had been used for good. And sometimes, the General had won, and the apple had been used for bad arcane purposes. But the guardian had never had a say in what the apple was used for. The witches were always angry, no matter who won it, because the golden apple had been taken from them.

Then, it had been the guardian's job to take shelter and wait out the witches' wrath. They had never been given any powers, though sometimes a Soul Rider, druid, or General had given them protection in the form of enchanted garments. The old church there was also safe from the witches, being constructed of stone with protective properties.

But none of those things had prepared the family of the guardians for the events that had transpired just a few years ago. The scarecrows that gave the hill its name had suddenly come to life. And yes, their original purpose had been to dissuade people from riding up the hill, but only in the sense that they looked scary. A witch had enchanted them, now, to come to life and chase people. It served the purpose well, admittedly, for nobody could touch the gleaming golden fruit that had regrown on the tree. Not Soul Riders, not Generals, and certainly not witches.

Joe had been young when the last race had been run at Scarecrow Hill. Too young to be its guardian. Another man had temporarily taken on that role, the stable master at Jorvik Stables. Something strange had happened then, a General had taken another golden apple and buried it while the Soul Rider had snagged the real one.

And then the scarecrows had come to life, but Joe was pretty sure that that had been unrelated. The witch that had been behind the scarecrows coming to life had once been the wife of the mayor of Cape West, the town that Joe had grown up in. He didn't remember that woman, but he'd seen the witch plenty of times. She'd come to their house one night, gloating about how the family's services were no longer needed at Scarecrow Hill. She'd scared him, and he'd cried into his pillow that night.

Joe had gone to Scarecrow Hill anyway, to see what it looked like. He'd run away screaming as a scarecrow came close to the gate. Those red eye beams haunted his dreams. He hadn't been back for a long time.

But, when Joe had heard that a Soul Rider had reopened the gates and deactivated the scarecrows, he'd decided to go back. And it had been empty. Or, not empty, for the scarecrows were still there, but it was quieter. There were no longer scarecrows floating around. No red eye beams piercing the gloom. No darkness, other than the ever-present darkness put there by generations of magic use. It was a kind of magic smog, though it didn't damage the environment at all.

Joe had stepped through the gates, fully expecting the scarecrows to jump to life and swarm him, to devour him with those soulless black eyes (they feasted on human flesh to sustain them, the rumours said, and little children were a delicacy to them), but they hadn't. They'd remained still. As Joe had walked up the hill, he'd thought that he'd seen a movement out of the corner of his eye. But when he'd turned, there had been nothing there. Though, he was pretty sure that the scarecrow behind him had been a little further down the hill before. The earth was disturbed.

With a shiver, Joe had continued walking. And this time, he was certain that he'd heard the unmistakable sound of a stake being torn out of the ground. Joe had whipped around, still trembling, and had seen the black smoke disappearing.

He'd run down the hill screaming, and had hidden in the Goldenleaf forest. Surely, he'd easily see a black shape in the forest with all the golden mist and leaves and grass. And he was right- he didn't see anything. Not even the dark shape that detached from the shadows beneath the broken bridge and followed him back to Scarecrow Hill. He'd closed the gates (to prevent riders from getting in there and getting hurt or riding off the cliff, he'd told himself), and gone back home.

Over the next week or so, Joe had seen and heard strange things out of the corner of his eye. A glimpse of red. Shadows that seemed too dark, or too long, or just too big. A strange tinkling noise, like the noise ghosts were said to make. A noise not unlike the Winter Spirits that used to pass through here. It always sent a chill down Joe's spine, like someone had trickled ice water down his back.

And then, one day, the rogue scarecrow had been too slow in darting back into the shadows.

"You!" Joe had shouted, turning and pointing at it. He'd trembled, but the scarecrow had continued to float there, staring at him with those red eye beams. "It's been you all along, h-hasn't it? Admit it!"

The scarecrow had made a noise that sounded like a beep. Not at all like the terrifying, spine-chilling, gut-clenching sounds that the others had made.

"You're not so scary, are you?" Joe had said, holding a hand out. The scarecrow had floated closer, silently. Joe had touched its prickly hand, and the scarecrow had made another beeping sound. More like a boop this time.

"What are you?" Joe had chuckled, "a scarecrow or a robot?" His answer had been yet another beep. Joe didn't know what he'd expected. Though, he had to admit, beeps and boops were better than scary noises.

The scarecrow had started to show itself more often after this. It even followed Joe around while he was checking the track for hazards and locking up for the night. Joe talked to it, even though it wasn't a great conversationalist. But he liked having someone to talk to, at least. Someone to talk to about his day, and his dreams, and his feelings. The scarecrow listened, and Joe loved it for that.

But then one day, Joe came to work early because he'd forgotten to lock the gates the night before. And he'd just stood there, staring. The gates were open. The hill looked the same as always, dotted with scarecrows and lit by an eerie red glow caused by the clouds swirling above. But there had been something missing. The first scarecrow on the hill, the one who usually greeted him first thing with a beep and then bade him goodnight with a boop, was missing. Joe had immediately panicked.

"Jasper, I don't want to alarm you, but a scarecrow has escaped," Joe had said, going immediately to the closest farm.

"Oh, it didn't escape, I had Louisa grab it for me," Jasper had said. "I needed a scarecrow to keep the crows away. They're the bane of my existence, those darn birds." He'd grumbled on about birds for several minutes.

"Oh," Joe had said. "Oh, okay, that's... fine, I guess. Nothing saying you couldn't take the scarecrows."

He'd returned to his hill, lonely, and the day had been a lot darker without the scarecrow.

But the following morning, Joe had arrived to find someone else outside the gates. A very familiar someone else.

"Hey, you're back!" Joe had shouted, flinging his arms around the scarecrow. It had made a very pleased-sounding beep. And then, a rider had appeared, and Joe had stopped hugging the scarecrow.

"Hey, Joe, have you seen a flying scarecrow around here?" Louisa had asked.

"That's a stupid question," Joe had said with a laugh.

"Eh, Jasper won't notice if I just grab a different one," Louisa had said, and she'd ridden away with another scarecrow on the back of her horse. And Joe had felt safe, sure that his scarecrow wouldn't want to leave him again.

But what Joe hadn't expected was that the scarecrow had liked the freedom. It floated back to Jasper's farm in the dead of night, and Joe found it there when he went looking. The other scarecrow had been uprooted, and lay against the side of the barn. When Jasper wanted a new one, though, the scarecrow returned to the hill and let Louisa take it away.

The next time Joe had seen the scarecrow, it had had glowing green eye beams, and had seemed overall more pleasant. It had even flown close to him for a hug.

Now, Joe pulled away from the scarecrow with a smile. He had an idea.

"Crowy, if the witch could bring you this far to life, I wonder if she can take you all the way," said Joe. And, making sure that the scarecrow was following, he walked through the night up to where the witch resided. The scarecrow helped him over the gaps in the treacherous path, and, finally, Joe stood before the witch. She was still ugly, but her skin was no longer green.

"Well, what do you want?" asked Pi, her bony arms crossed in front of her chest. "Hurry up, I don't have all day. Jorvik's Got Talent is on soon, and Maxy and I never miss an episode." Joe took a deep breath. The witch might laugh at him, or she might be cruel.

"I want you to make this scarecrow real," said Joe.

"Why?" asked Pi. "A real man would not be able to do the same job this scarecrow does. He'd need to sleep and eat, both things which would interfere with its job."

"Just for a few minutes, then," said Joe. "Maybe for an hour every night at midnight. Please."

"You still haven't told me why," said Pi.

"Because... I want to hook up with it," said Joe. Pi was silent for a moment.

"Okay," said Pi. "Anything for love, as they say."

"Wait, really?" asked Joe, but the witch was already going about preparing the spell ingredients. In no time, there was a cauldron full of bubbling swamp water, and the scarecrow was lowered into it.

A man emerged, one with yellow hair plastered to his scalp and green water streaming off of his thin body. His skin was a brown colour, like the sacks that his body had been made of. He was also, to Joe's embarrassment (and delight), wearing not a stitch of clothing. Fortunately, the cauldron covered his lower half for now.

"Go have fun," said Pi. "My show is starting."

"Hi," said Joe, suddenly shy in the face of such a perfect male specimen. He was captivated by those bright green eyes, eyes which shone like his green eye beams had.

"Beep," said Crowy. "Er, I mean, hello." Joe grinned at finally hearing his voice, and then he grabbed Crowy by the shoulders as their lips crashed together. Crowy was bony, and the water sloshed over the side of the cauldron, but Joe didn't care. He also didn't care that Crowy tasted like dust and hay, or that he felt like sneezing as they kissed. He just liked the kissing.

"I've wanted to do that for so long," said Joe when he finally pulled away for air. Crowy's hair was starting to dry, and was sticking up at all angles.

"I know," said Crowy. "You told me. You even tried to once, but the feeling of kissing a dirty old sack wasn't very pleasant."

"Did you feel it?" asked Joe, blushing as he remembered that event.

"That and so much more," said Crowy. "I look forward to these hours."

"Well, we still have a good fifty or so minutes," said Joe. "How about we got to know each other better?"

"You read my mind," said Crowy, and pulled Joe in for more kisses. Neither of them were very good at kissing, but neither of them really cared all that much. At least they could kiss now.


End file.
